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STRANGER THINGS — 3.07, The Bite

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ID'ed one of my white whales, the magazine here from the yearbooks BTS:

LIFE Magazine, June 30, 1972

the cover story is about Explo '72. I think the three person "human tower" (piggyback-esque) is probably what's meaningful if anything, but definitely an interesting event considering all our churches/do not overcome evil but overcome evil with good next season.

I also got this guy, so it definitely seems like production bought a lot of 1972 LIFE magazines. we should have more than a few characters undercover this season tho

LIFE Magazine, August 4, 1972

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Escape from [New York/L.A./Camazotz]

I think the "Camazotz" in s05e06 "Escape from Camazotz" preoccupied us all enough that we haven't really reckoned with in addition to being a reference to A Wrinkle in Time, that episode title is probably also invoking Escape from New York/Escape from L.A.

John Carpenter is obviously already extremely part of the Stranger Things DNA, and this movie, while existing in a much more heightened reality than ST, is obviously a Duffers source text.

We have a nail bat.

An apocalyptic station wagon.

Literally utilizing a deep cut from the movie's score in the show.

So I really don't see a world where they're not paying homage to at least the first movie with "Escape from Camazotz."

but if there is more to glean from this for what's going on in Stranger Things s5e06, what would it be?

Escape from New York is a rescue mission (from a walled-in prison), in response to a hostage situation.

The rescue mission has a very explicit time limit.

According to those who are making the deal to our protagonist, Snake Plissken (who is a definite Steve hair antecedent imo): “Once you’re inside, you’re on your own” (but Snake does communicate with them via radio, and is being tracked)

The MacGuffin they're chasing turns out to be a tape with classified information about nuclear fusion, which is intended to be part some kind of entreaty (for peace?) by the U.S. at the "Hartford Summit". There's a switcheroo and the end of the movie where Snake, disillusioned by how those in power are treating the people on the ground, replaces the nuclear fusion tape with a "Bandstand Boogie" recording.

Escape from L.A. has a lot of culture war stuff going on, the president is a fundamentalist theocrat. L.A. is now an island bc of an apocalyptic earthquake and functions as the "deportation center for anyone found undesirable or unfit to live in the new, moral America"

In L.A., the president's daughter is manipulated via a political insurgent sending her "visions" through some kind of in-universe virtual reality technology to steal a key piece of technology.

The above technology will fry all electronic devices via an electromagnetic pulse, either in a targeted area or worldwide.

L.A. has the countdown to a specific deadline thing going on but instead of the "micro-explosives" he's injected with in the first movie, Snake is infected with an illness that they tell him will kill him if he doesn't get the cure by the allotted time. he gets more ill (coughing, feverish) throughout the course of the film.

both movies end with a live TV broadcast by the president. sequel also involves some hologram stuff

L.A. also has...a submarine sequence, and also surfing and hang gliding??? it is a delirious movie. but yeah re: st5, hey, you never know

(I do think the rescue mission thing is the most likely meaning)

I mean yes, I'm thinking about the Meat Wall

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The Meat Wall and...The Truman Show?

at this point a lot of us are on board with the idea that the massive "Meat Wall" that El and Hopper stand in front of in the s5 date announcement teaser is the end of the Upside Down. which exists only "under" Hawkins.

realized this week that of all things this image evokes the final scene of The Truman Show, a movie that was on the s4 Video Store Fridays whiteboard. I assumed because of the lab surveillance video Nina Project reality tv thing. but, you know, both/and...

For those unfamiliar, the plot of The Truman Show is that Truman Burbank is unaware he has been at the center of an extremely popular reality TV show since birth. Everyone else in his life is an actor, and the town he lives in is actually an extremely elaborate soundstage underneath a massive dome in California.

Things get more and more uncanny for Truman over the course of the movie, fastforwarding significantly, the movie culminates with him commandeering a boat and sailing through a storm to the "edge of the world" (the end of the soundstage), which is a matte painting of the horizon.

so this image is about Truman finally having tangible proof of his world being artificial, literally piercing the fourth wall with the boat's bow. his feelings of being controlled and stuck have a physical manifestation, and to attain the freedom and autonomy he's been seeking he needs to get to the matte painting's other side.

the show's creator final appeal to Truman involves telling him: "There’s no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you. Same lies, same deceit. in my world [of the TV show] you have nothing to fear."

so Truman is set up for his own Matrix blue or red pill choice, and, obviously bc it's a movie, he chooses the unknown and the capacity for true self-determination over the familiar and (the illusion of) safety.

there's resonance here with the analysis that's been going on about the Meat Wall and the poster for Pink Floyd's The Wall in the WSQK basement (even if the causality is a bit different): both worlds' borders cages in an artificial environment that traps the subject within it, keeping his life safe, expected, and small. (yes, the "him" I'm alluding to in ST would be Will, creator of the Upside Down)

and a few more quick hits of thematic stuff going on in this film, probably a lot of this isn't ST5 relevant but you never know (also it's just a good movie):

Truman's life is extremely cyclical and repetitive, mirroring the conventions of traditional broadcast television. he sees the same people and has the same small talk conversations every morning

in order to keep him "on the island" where he lives in a way that isn't forced, a fear of drowning is implanted in him as a kid via a traumatic event where he's present while his dad drowns

at various points in his life, he goes "off script" in ways that mean the producers need to intervene, including falling in love with a background actor at the same time as he was supposed to be starting a romance with his intended main cast love interest. one might say...rewriting the ending?

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when i am Seated on november 26 and see joyce with an axe and her son by her side all season

me and @frodohaven just want s1-2 joyce back!

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What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy)

I feel like ST fandom on here has converged on a couple primary theories about Will’s powers: creation/manifestation powers (see @/pinkeoni here) and electricity powers (see @/threemanoperation here and @/mIchaelwheeler here).

(ofc there are more than these but these are what’s relevant to this post)

It is emphasized repeatedly throughout the show that the opening of a gate requires an enormous amount of energy.

According to the show’s telling to this point, the s1 gate opened because of the “psychic contact” between El and the Demogorgon. and the mechanic by which Vecna opened his curse gates in s4 also involved psychic contact between him and his victims.

El has made "psychic contact" with others at various points throughout the show without either unleashing a huge surge of energy or opening a gate. Maybe one party involved in the “contact” has to be in another dimension, or part of the Hive Mind?

Or...maybe the "energy" came from another source? (Dustin does say "somehow" there...)

if we're framing this in the context of Will having energy powers (yes, that's what this post is actually about, thank you for taking that walk with me), this would bring us to something more time-bending going on there. Dustin also does say "time and space," after all. I would point to a timey-wimey scenario possibly involving 1983 Will, who we know we're revisiting in s5, see @/willbyersabyss for some exploration of that possibility

tbh I don't expect this logic to end up all lining up with perfect internal coherence but just thinking through possibilities

the most exciting contemporary energy sources (light, fire, electricity) are associated with “the spark of creation” throughout our full range of canons: lightning/electricity is what animates the monster in Frankenstein*; “Let there be light” is God’s first command in the Genesis creation story; in some versions of Greek myth, fire-stealing Prometheus also was the one to mold mankind out of clay.

*I know this actually comes from the movies/pop culture images of Frankenstein, but there is some connection with the original text just roll with it ty

"The Spark of Creation" is also the best song Stephen Schwartz has ever written from one of his weird bible musicals <3 sorry wicked ily2

That final image brings us to atomic energy, which has lurked throughout the show bc of Cold War set dressing and Russians. but I think we're queuing up for a bigger presence on that front both thematically and plot-wise considering our narrative origin point is now Nevada in the '50s, per The First Shadow.

In the US nuclear program, the launch of nuclear missiles and submarines requires two keys (we know this, the Soviet Key machine under Starcourt functions according to the same principles).

these are on the same keyring bc they are souvenirs but choosing as my illustration here bc there is a Minuteman Missile NHS Easter Egg in the WSQK bunker

For Alexei and his team, the two "keys" were energy and location. for Mothergate were the two keys El's psionic portal opening ability and someone else [Will]'s energy generation ability?

Vecna should have had prime opportunity to "steal" the latter even before he had access via the Meat Flayer's bite to get after the former. (I also have so many questions about this mechanic)

I think what I'm arguing basically is: creation and electricity (energy) powers might not necessarily be mutually exclusive in Will's case. generation and amplification, yes?

My vessel, my builder

This broader category of “energy powers” intrigues me for Will bc of potential overlap with being a vessel as a supernatural metaphor. Especially if the flavor of energy powers he has involve him being able to give energy to others (in a manner that might drain him, like perhaps the state we saw him in a certain date announcement teaser teaser).

All of my other vessel reference points in fiction come from Supernatural it's so embarrassing. But in that version of vessel lore, it was all about consent. being a vessel involves opening yourself up to another entity, totally and completely. Will's equivalent supernatural experience was an extremely nonconsensual, invasive experience, and obviously one he carries with him.

Utilizing a version of "energy amplification" or whatever it would end up being would involve Will making himself vulnerable - but a version of vulnerability where he would have to consider his own needs and set boundaries.

in addition to powers metaphorically = queerness, and therefore coming to terms with that metaphorically = self acceptance, a lot of the above sounds directly in response to the patterns of behavior the narrative has set up for Will to overcome. you can't help others (give your narratively positioned psychic twin access to your well of energy augmentation abilities) until you help yourself (make sure you don't overexert yourself and end up with a dead psionic battery), as the saying goes.

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(source)

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I love him sm

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The Watergate scandal on Stranger Things

While we're all obsessing over the physical Lovers' Lake (understandable), we shouldn't forget the Watergate aspect of it either - which goes all the way back to season 1 with the bugging and recording devices.

While it's the lab listening in for most of season 1, we've also seen Nancy, Dustin, and Joyce (with Murray's help) secretly record things which they listen to over and over trying to find clues. Evidence.

There's a scandal - most likely on a tape - waiting to be revealed. A source who has or will tip people off. And maybe we've only had access to the edited transcript so far. There's been a cover-up.

Perhaps the fact that Dustin keeps talking about electromagnetic fields getting messed up, and that there's always a 'water' gate involved isn't a coincidence?

Cassettes and tape recorders also use electromagnetic fields, and one of the things that can affect a cassette is also...a very strong magnet.

Whatever's going on with Holly next season may be the watered down, edited version. That's the same stamp we see in Holly's room.

So what's the real Hawkinsgate scandal that's going to rock the town (and the party)? And more importantly, who is actually blowing this thing wide open?

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starting to wonder if the reason they switched Will's watch hand for season 5 is because something will happen with his left hand. (a possibility floated by @/pinkeoni all the way back in 2022!)

watches are typically worn on the arm opposite of your dominant hand, thus why most Stranger Things characters wear their watches on their left wrist, including Will in previous seasons. (an exception is Dustin bc Gaten is a lefty but they still put Dustin's watch on his left wrist, pretty inconsiderate...also yes, s1-s4 Mike and Max weirdly being right wrist watch wearers, despite I think both being righties)

side note, I think Will may now be sporting the same watch as Hopper (extremely pending a higher res image). I'd float the idea of a hand me down but that watch should be somewhere in Siberia I guess.

The First Shadow establishes that Henry has something weird going on with his left hand in connection to his disappearance on/around his 8th birthday that left him changed/possessed. in West End TFS, he has a scar, which you can see in some of the promo footage:

I believe the scar was scrapped for Broadway, but it's replaced with more explicit dialogue about Henry having an unexplained wound (diagnosed as a possible gun shot wound) on his left hand when he shows back up after being missing.

there's a lot going on with any potential left hand business: ST Vecna's enlarged left hand, DnD Vecna's missing, mummified left hand, "bend sinisters" and the historical association with the left side being different/wrong/even satanic.

plus we've got our sci-fi/fantasy behandings/befingerings, the two most obvious ones coming from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings (another Will-Frodo tether...?). Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is so named to play with that left hand/right hand symbolic duality in a different way:

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When blue meets yellow in the west...

...is not a byler reference. Let's go over the different dimensions and how this impacts Vecna's reach into Hawkins.

While I do think Mike and Will are represented through blue and yellow respectively, I don't think the Russian code is referring to their reunion in California. The entire quote: "The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly."

"The silver cat feeds" is referring to Vecna killing. Vecna kills Chrissy one day before Mike leaves for California. This means Vecna's killings were not triggered by Mike and Will reuniting like the original quote would allude.

So what is the blue and yellow in question referring to? Dimension X and the Upside Down.

Two of the dimensions we explore in s4 are distinctly yellow and blue. Dimension X, the yellow dimension, is the dimension Henry was banished to and the original home of the monsters. The Upside Down is very blue. While many believe these are the same dimension, they're actually two separate places!

So if Vecna was banished to Dimension X, how did he end up in the Upside Down? Blue met yellow in the west! In order for the monsters to enter the Upside Down, these dimensions must connect at some point. This is likely in west Hawkins.

This may or may not be relevant, but according to the map shown in s2, the quarry, HNL, and the Byers house are all west/southwest of Hawkins. Do with that what you will.

This first image from the teaser shows a giant wall in the Upside Down. Could this be a border surrounding Hawkins? If the Upside Down is restricted to Hawkins, Dimension X is likely on the other side of this border.

The other image the writers posted may be a diagram of where Dimension X and the Upside Down meet. I believe the Upside Down is the bridge between the real world and Dimension X aka where the circles overlap. Shout out to 5x07 titled "The Bridge." The Hellscape (lightning clouds) Henry flies through is also a bridge dimension.

Given the likelihood of time shenanigans in s5, there might be certain conditions required for these dimensions to meet. I've always been curious why the monsters wait for long time skips before attacking again. It could just be convenient for the writers, or it could be lore related. In s1, s2, and s5 they come back surrounding November 6th. In s4, Vecna began killing again on the same day as the Creel murders. The only outlier is s3, but this may be because a gate was forced open.

Surrounding significant dates of murder and gates, the border seems to weaken and allow these dimensions to collide. The anniversary effect! So the ominous blue and yellow code is referencing how these dimensions meet on the anniversary of the Creel murders, allowing Vecna’s abilities to break through the border.

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In season 1, the town speculates that Will was 'killed by some other queer', the teens joke that Jonathan killed him (ugh), and the overall vibe is that whatever happened to him isn't surprising because of his family and who they think he is.

Same with Barb. She goes missing at Steve's house in his heated swimming pool and it gets covered up.

In season 4 too, the jocks joke that it was probably some druggie who OD'd on heroin at the trailer park, but the town is in an uproar when they find out it was Chrissy. Redhead like Max, is/was dating a jock like Max, on medication and seeing the school's counselor like Max, dead literally across the road from Max.

Just from different socio-economic backgrounds.

Would the town have gone through the same uproar if it had been Max? Probably not. There's also something metaphorical there with her dying in the Creel house at the end of the season.

Forrest Hills Park is also where Nancy and Jonathan get taken by the lab guys in season 2 when they want to get justice for Barb and Will.

Jason is found with Patrick's body in his arms and they were at a drug dealer's house to attack another boy with weapons, but he was never a suspect. Instead the town is up in arms about Eddie and the Hellfire Club.

Which makes me wonder - when Holly gets taken in season 5, who will the town blame? Because they are looking for a new villain.

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I attended a series of lectures on neuroscience these last few days (like, a super basic cliffnotes-esque version of the topic cause medicine/STEM is not my field of work, so apologies for any innacuracies ahead), and when the lecturer brought up the importance of the frontal lobe, she casually alluded to what happened to Phineas P. Gage and-

wbk but also non-accidental split imagery one more time ^

She also briefly touched upon the 'cuts' of the brain (left and right hemispheres, lobes —and primary functions of each—, gray and white matter) and neural processes like synapsis —communication between neurons by chemical and electrical reactions—, but one of the things that stood out to me the most was the creation and reconfiguration/transformation/plasticity of neural circuits.

A neural circuit is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function —i.e. processing specific information and sending signals to other parts of the brain and body — when activated.

definition just for context; the point of bringing this up being what these circuits look like:

^^^this is just a guide alluding to the differences in morphology neurons can have, but they kinda giving-

and-

literally when the lecturer first showed what these cells look like I was like "neat, the tree of life. kinda, sorta. out to deliver trauma to the rest of the nervous system :))"

and (to the right, for comparison: what neuron synapses look like)

and of course, not totally accurate comparison ahead, but I couldn't resist the slight visual graphy coinkidink with the letter-assigned grid:

Additionally, zooming out, multiple neural circuits can interconnect with one another to form large scale brain networks, and the one that stood out to me was the default mode network (DMN):

also known as the medial frontoparietal network, it's a large-scale brain network [...] best known for being active when a person is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering.

Other times that the DMN is active include when the individual is thinking about others, thinking about themselves, remembering the past, and planning for the future. The DMN creates a coherent "internal narrative" control to the construction of a sense of self.

^ smart people, pls do with this info what you must.

the point I think I was trying to make: what if the blue UD we know has blurred the lines between being a representation of will's subconscious mindscape and also a visual abstraction of the biological/neurological state of his brain —as the two, like irl, are so intrinsically connected?

which, fortunately, means hope for will and the UD too (wbk), because by this line of thought/theory of sorts, the capacity neural circuits have to rearrange themselves, even after years and so much pain, can transform the blue UD, will's mind, as we've come to know it (the plasticity I was reffering to at the beginning of the post). However, it's important to note that to learn something new, you have to unlearn other stuff to make room for it.

I'm far from the first to talk about this topic, so check out the following posts! This one by @erikiara80, along the lines of her loop theory, dives into the implications of will's possible injury or death caused by having been hit to the head by a blunt object.

@conflictofthemind also has a great post about the treeflayer (shoutout and tysm to @threemanoperation for telling me about it and for prompting me to post this) with more tree imagery that evokes similar shapes to those of neurons (and it also links to Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan/Neverland parallels).

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Byerses and Bends, Refraction and Distortion

I realized the Byers brothers are wearing shirts in s5 that are potentially in conversation with each other.

Jonathan’s The Fall shirt has a specific album cover on it, Bend Sinister. It’s named for the 1947 Nabokov novel, a dystopian satire about twentieth century totalitarianism along the lines of 1984 (though my impression is that Nabokov didn’t like those comparisons).

The title comes from heraldry (the design of “armorial bearings,” which include shields/coats of arms). In heraldry, a “bend” is a diagonal stripe running from the bearer’s upper right side to the bearer's lower left side. A “bend sinister” is a diagonal stripe that runs the opposite way, so from upper left to lower right.

I have to be honest, I've spent a long time with this quote and I still struggle with the meaning of "an outline broken by refraction" but we are not all Vladimir Nabokov

so a bend is a diagonal stripe...aka what Will has on his chest as part of his s5 midseason outfit.

others have already pointed out how the diagonals also evoke the "rod motif" associated with Will visually throughout the series

but interestingly if this is intentional, Will's "bends" are actually going the "correct" way. I'm encountering conflicting information and I do not have patience to go too deep into heraldry, but it seems like bend sinisters were sometimes added to the coats of arms of illegitimate children of nobles, so it's associated with bastardry or illegitimacy.

obviously potentially something here in terms of identity and integration considering where we’re at in our supernatural coming-of-age tale. there’s maybe something about Will being a “legitimate” heir (to the Upside Down? Or maybe more generally the heir to the cycle that started with Brenner and Henry who will set things “right”?).

I am not well-versed in '80s post-punk at all but my impression is The Fall album is playing a lot more with the totalitarian dystopia of the novel’s premise versus the title itself (also very thematically appropriate for ST s5). but there is some distortion and reflection going on in the album’s cover – as the image of the human face is repeated, it gets larger and more overexposed.

and also interestingly if intentional, that means the Byers brothers have their own shield imagery motif going on. Nancy has to get in on this game.

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Jonathan Byers aka God’s sleepiest soldier

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sorry to keep reblogging my own post but had another thought on this today

I have an attachment to the concept - based on no real evidence so proceed with that disclaimer in mind - that the Upside Down Church set does not exist in Right Side Up Hawkins, and actually is the site of an important memory for Henry from Nevada.

(this location will be in ep 6, though may show up before/after that too)

there is something about that idea that feels very cool to me, especially if we're learning more about the UD's origins which I think the Will theorists on Tumblr all are on the same page as likely to be tied to Will via some flavor of manifestation powers or Mindscape/psychic connection mechanic (one theory on the latter from @/willbyersabyss that I find quite compelling).

so a location from outside Hawkins from Henry's Mindscape bleeding into the UD has the potential to highlight something about the nature of Will and Vecna's supernatural connection and how it relates to the creation of the UD, pull out some realizations about that for our characters, and also maybe act as an indicator that the whole system becoming more unstable as we approach the show's endgame.

and relevant to the original post here because if we're spending time in a possessed Will's mind in episode 6, this could represent that dynamic "physically" onscreen, albeit in a Mindscapey way (again, all pending what is really going on with Will and the UD).

there's something about let's say Nancy looking at this extremely menacing church when that group is in the UD and being like "this...isn't in Hawkins" that feels extremely ST as a twist to me (especially since they have been systematically tracking something around town via the map wall at WSQK when we pick things back up this season. so they really should be aware)

anyways, obviously it's been long speculated that key memory could be an exorcism attempt on Henry based on the Bible verse on the sign, which is about a failed exorcism strategy when trying to cast a demon out of a young boy:

before anyone goes down any rabbit holes on this the pastor's name there is Lampton Enochs which is the name of a producer on ST. which doesn't mean they aren't also trying to do something biblical there since that guy does have a pretty metal surname

Kate Trefry has said that early drafts of The First Shadow involved something about an exorcism that was supposed to be performed by Patty and Bob's dad. which obviously is a big knock against this theory (also I'm totally sunk here if this is the church in TFS which is definitely possible but I think not a certainty).

that concept seemed to have long fallen out of TFS by its West End staging but then by Broadway TFS a version did make it back into Henry's story in a different way. Henry tells Patty while they're sharing secrets in the confession both that "my mom tried to do an exorcism on me" which would put that incident pre-Creel move to Hawkins.

but anyways circling back to this it occurred to me for the first time that the First Baptist Church sign here does not say "Hawkins," "Roane," etc anywhere, which they're usually pretty happy to plaster all over the place. not definitive at all but a data point to consider...

I'm starting to think that ep 6 will involve El piggybacking into Vecna's Mindscape via Will's mind.

We know from pap photos/videos that Lucas and Robin speed to the hospital in Joyce's car for a big sequence there that seems to bridge episode 5 and episode 6. The other three major members of their group at this point are Will, Joyce, and Mike, so it makes sense that those three are together - maybe even in an ambulance heading to the hospital as well. (I believe this connection first came from @/pinkeoni and @/finalgirllwillbyers)

This is conspiracy theory brained but Noah is the only member of this midseason group that Shawn Levy (who is directing ep 6) didn't post a photo of in-costume on set, which could be because something spoilery is going on with Will visually in episode 6 (ie, that he's in a hospital gown or otherwise injured/indisposed).

I'm currently a loverslakegate agnostic but I do think signs point to Will having a traumatic experience in a body of water in episode 5. Lucas's pants also get muddy and he changes into the blue WSQK sweatshirt by the time they get to the hospital, and Joyce is the other one with the bonus outfit change somewhere around here.

El is in Shawn's photos of a confusing cross-section of the different midseason groups at WSQK, so she may be back from her Upside Down side quest by now. but regardless of her exact location, we know she can piggyback remotely.

As has been speculated for a while now, Escape from Camazotz likely refers to the vision that Henry has the kids in at the Creel House. Camazotz makes the most sense in that context since can assume Holly and her classmates call it that since they're reading A Wrinkle in Time in class.

so if that's the case, who is escaping? Max and Holly are our likeliest candidates.

Credits for a New Mexico unit have started to pop up on IMDB episodes 4, 6, and 8, and Sadie was placed in Albuquerque while that was active. It's likely those are Mindscape flashbacks of Henry in Nevada (in particular the incident alluded to in The First Shadow where Henry disappears for 12 hours on/around his 8th birthday in a cave system and comes back changed) and/or desert-y Dimension X. The Upside Down church set probably fits into this too.

basically, all these pieces make me think we could get something like:

Will is unconscious/indisposed by ep 5 into ep 6, maybe in relation to however his connection with Vecna is manifesting this season reaching its peak,

El and/or someone else in the group realizes that connection is an access point for El to get into Vecna's mind (looking to rescue Max and/or Holly),

there is a piggyback scenario where El, Will, Max, and possibly Holly witness some chunk of the big Henry lore reveal we know is coming,

and ultimately El and/or Will manage to free Max and/or Holly.

that would bring some resolution to a couple threads that should drive the first part of the season (finding Max, rescuing Holly from whatever her exact vanishing situation is) and uncover key information to tee up our final act.

I originally felt like Max wouldn't wake up until the very end of the main season plotline just because she'll be pretty physically frail, but her chair is in that photo of a huge group at Hawkins National Lab, which should be after this big hospital sequence chronologically.

hopefully if something like this happens we would get to spend some time in Will's mind too. the Nevada flashbacks also possibly being present in ep 4 maybe connects us to the 1979 flashback we're getting with Will, Mike, and Jonathan/Will's Mindscape generally, "Sorcerer" and all.

also, when they escape Camazotz the first time in A Wrinkle in Time with the missing person they went there to retrieve, they have to leave someone behind...